Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!DECWRL.DEC.COM!mwm From: mwm@DECWRL.DEC.COM (Mike Meyer, My Watch Has Windows) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: (pssst...fortran?) Message-ID: <9009131727.AA13264@raven.pa.dec.com> Date: 13 Sep 90 17:27:12 GMT Sender: sklower@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 31 >> But while most 'specialty' languages are fine-tuned for their uses >> and fulfill a need (such as COBOL, APL, PROLOG, etc) there are >> general-purpose languages such as C, PASCAL, BASIC, FORTRAN. What makes you think of a FORmula TRANslation language as a "general-purpose" language? Yes, people do use it for all kinds of things; but others use COBOL and APL the same way. FORTRAN used to be a general-purpose language. I don't know why this happened, but I'm pretty sure it was related to FORTRANs being among the first high-level languages, and it being the 'specialty' language used by those who were teaching programming early in the game. Today, it's use seems to be pretty much restricted to people doing engineering and scientific work. Most CS departments (at least, the ones I'm aware of) don't teach it as a first language, or even consider it except in passing in a "Survey of Computer Languages" course (where you're also liable to find APL, SNOBOL, and FORTH). As such, I don't see that there's anything to worry about. The world would be better off if FORTRAN could be replaced buy something newer & better designed, but that's true for all languages. Of course, this conclusion is based on my observations of the world. Others may have a different perspective, which I'd be interested in hearing.